chauffeur

[shoh-fer, shoh-fur]

noun

1. a person employed to drive a private automobile or limousine for the owner.

2. a person employed to drive a car or limousine that transports paying passengers.

verb (used with object)

1. to drive (a vehicle) as a chauffeur.

2. to transport by car.

   Saturday mornings I have to chauffeur the kids to their music lessons.

verb (used without object)

1. to work as a chauffeur.

   He chauffeured for a time right after the war.

chauffeur

/ ˈʃəʊfə, ʃəʊˈfɜːz, ʃəʊˈfɜː /

noun

1. a person employed to drive a car

verb

1. to act as driver for (a person)

   he chauffeured me to the stadium

   he chauffeurs for the Duke

Other Word Forms

• unchauffeured adjective
• well-chauffeured adjective
• chauffeuse noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of chauffeur¹

1895–1900; < French, equivalent to chauff(er ) to heat ( chafe ) + -eur -eur

Word History and Origins

Origin of chauffeur¹

C20: from French, literally: stoker, from chauffer to heat

Example Sentences

A story the following year revealed that hospital administrators were forcing a maintenance worker to step in as an ambulance driver on weekends — without the requisite chauffeur’s license — to save money.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Because most of the lodging in White Sulphur Springs was Whites-only, the Colored people who had larger homes would often take in a chauffeur or a Pullman porter as a roomer.

Read more on Literature

It revolves around records kept by a government chauffeur of cash bribes he claims to have delivered from businessmen to government officials between 2003 and 2015.

Read more on Barron's

She was previously criticised for claiming thousands of pounds in expenses from the taxpayer for chauffeur driven cars.

Read more on BBC

Matt Barnes, the founder of a company that helps people find chauffeured vehicles, said that rumblings about gates going up on North Bay played into his decision to invest there last year.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal